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California Wolf Plan Comments and Appendices

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California Wolf Plan Comments and Appendices Via Electronic Transmission February 12, 2016 Wolf Plan Comments California Department of Fish and Wildlife [email protected] To the Department: 1 The following comments regarding the “Draft Conservation Plan for Gray Wolves in California” (“Draft Wolf Plan” or “Plan”) are submitted on behalf of the following organizations and our combined total of more than 2.9 million California members and supporters: Animal Legal Defense Fund California Wolf Center Cascadia Wildlands Center for Biological Diversity Defenders of Wildlife Endangered Species Coalition Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) Friends of the Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife Howling for Wolves Humane Society of the United States Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center Living with Wolves National Wolfwatcher Coalition Natural Resources Defense Council Predator Defense Project Coyote Sierra Club California WildEarth Guardians Western Watersheds Project INTRODUCTION We recognize the extraordinary endeavor by many contributors that has resulted in the Draft Wolf Plan. We thank the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (“Department” or “CDFW”) for assembling a Stakeholder Working Group (“SWG”), for the many SWG meetings held by the Department over a several-year process to discuss key issues with SWG members and obtain their input, for the writing of this Draft Wolf Plan for public review, and for providing public comment opportunity via written comments and public meetings. We especially appreciate the opportunity you made available for the public to provide input on the plan by hosting meetings throughout the state, from Yreka to Long Beach. There are many parts of the Draft Wolf Plan with which we fully agree and support. Other parts are not based on science; we do not support them and believe it would be at best a terrible mistake and at worst a travesty should those provisions be adopted in a final version of the Plan. We are pleased that the Draft Wolf Plan covers a wide range of topics which are both critical for wolf conservation and essential for public knowledge and understanding as we welcome wolves back to the Golden State. We agree with the Draft Wolf Plan’s emphasis on nonlethal coexistence measures to deter or reduce livestock-wolf conflicts, which are more effective over the long term and far less costly than killing wolves or other predators.1 1 McManus et al., 2014; Imbert et al., 2016. 2 We also appreciate that the Draft Wolf Plan does not place a cap on the wolf population nor create wolf-and-no-wolf zones. The Draft Wolf Plan’s chapter on disease is extremely informative and will, we hope, bring a halt to the baseless claims that wolves will ravage our state with disease. Nothing could be farther from the truth and this chapter does an excellent, scientific and easy-to-understand job of dispelling such claims and presenting the facts. However, we are concerned that some key topics have been entirely left out and that nearly all of the published literature provided to the Department a year ago by the environmental conservation caucus of the SWG is neither discussed nor cited to in the Draft Wolf Plan. Additionally, key concepts and documents that were drafted, shared and edited by all interested members of the SWG are missing. Additional significant concerns expressed during the SWG process remain among the environmental conservation caucus groups and among the additional groups who have participated in crafting this comment letter. In the following pages, we address the topics in this bulleted list: 1. CDFW has a legal duty under the Public Trust Doctrine to manage wildlife on behalf of all citizens of California. 2. The Plan should seek to recover wolves, not simply conserve and manage them. 3. The Plan’s tone should reflect that wolf recovery is a conservation opportunity, not a challenge to be overcome. 4. Promoting coexistence between wolves and livestock producers is of critical importance. 5. The Plan should prohibit the killing of wolves for depredations on public lands, require use of nonlethal measures before resorting to any lethal control of wolves, and must codify enforceable lethal take provisions. 6. The Plan should explain the correct use of livestock guarding dogs. 7. Depredation Investigations Protocols should be clearly articulated and included in the Plan. 8. Thresholds for population numbers and duration of time for phase transition are inconsistent, too low and not scientifically justified. 9. The threshold for seeking state-delisting is far too low and not scientifically defensible. 10. Seeking federal down-listing in protection levels and/or state legislative permission to obtain kill authority potentially creates confusing conflict between federal and state law, sets dangerous precedent and is unwarranted. 3 11. Outreach and education efforts should include compliance-enforcement information. 12. The Plan needs to prioritize recovery, conservation and management actions and prioritize securing funds from state and federal sources for implementation. 13. The Plan must include a comprehensive plan of action for public education aimed at recipients of wolf-location information. 14. The Draft Plan lacks key information referenced in the Draft Plan and/or which was discussed and intended by SWG members to be included in the Plan. 15. Wolves, coyotes and bears should not be killed to conserve wild ungulate populations. 16. Threats to wolves from illegal killing due to mistaken identification as coyotes have not been adequately addressed. 17. The Plan includes no discussion of potential economic benefit to local and regional economies from reestablishment of wolves, wolf-related ecotourism and consumer market for predator-friendly raised livestock products. 18. Comments regarding the Plan’s assessment of wolf taxonomy, population size and genetics issues regarding hybridization. 19. Ungulate population and habitat management are important aspects of wolf conservation and recovery efforts. 20. CDFW should actively seek out all opportunities to weigh in on land management actions with federal agencies and participate in land management planning processes. 21. The Plan should describe priorities for protecting, restoring and enhancing habitat that would benefit wolves because the State Wildlife Action Plan identifies the gray wolf as a Focal Species of Conservation Strategies. 22. The Plan should identify habitat conservation and connectivity priorities that will benefit wolf recovery. 23. The Plan’s trophic cascades discussion should include published research demonstrating wolves’ positive impacts in the Western Great Lakes states. 24. The Plan’s discussion on impacts of wolf mortality and wolf-killing on wolf packs should include the findings of a 2014 symposium on this very topic. 25. The Plan’s discussion of human social tolerance for wolves should address and cite to additional sources. 4 26. The Plan’s discussion of human perceptions and interactions with wolves should include discussion and citation to new paper establishing that the majority of attacks on humans by carnivores is due to inappropriate conduct by humans. 27. Evidence of historical wolf presence in California as indicated in languages, tales, practices and ceremonies of Native Peoples deserves a heading other than “Anecdotal Observations.” COMMENTS CDFW Has a Legal Duty Under the Public Trust Doctrine to Manage Wildlife on Behalf of All Citizens of California The State of California has a legal duty to manage its natural resources, including wildlife, in a manner that benefits all of its citizens. This duty is derived from California’s statutes and a long common law tradition requiring each state to protect and preserve the natural resources shared by its citizens called the public trust doctrine. Common law principles reaching back to antiquity place a duty on the state, as part of its sovereign nature as the representative of the people, to hold common natural resources in trust for its citizens.2 This trust requires the state to preserve natural resources, and to protect its citizens’ interests in those resources, by safeguarding against their exploitation for private gain at the expense of the public good.3 Historically, the public trust doctrine arose to protect the public’s right to access tidelands and navigable waters, specifically for their use in navigation, commerce, and fishing.4 Over time however, the public trust duty has expanded beyond its traditional boundaries. In California, the public trust duty of the state includes the protection of wildlife resources.5 California courts have reached this conclusion directly, citing the important shared resource provided by wildlife.6 California Courts have also reached this conclusion implicitly through the recognition that the prudent allocation of other natural resources–namely State waters–requires the State to consider the effect of its decision making on wildlife.7 In addition, California Fish & Game Code explicitly states that wildlife resources are held in trust by the State for the benefit of its citizens.8 As such, it is clear that California law treats wildlife as an important natural resource that provides significant public benefits and therefore necessitates State protection through a public trust. 2 National Audubon Society v. Superior Court of Alpine County, 33 Cal.3d 419, 433 (1983). 3 Berkeley v. Superior Court, 26 Cal. 3d 515, 521 (Cal. 1980); See Illinois Central Railroad Company v. Illinois 146 U.S. 387 (1892). 4 See Illinois Central Railroad Company v. Illinois 146
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